Venezuela Increases Minimum Wage

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced a new increase of the minimum wage today, which will take effect on September 1st, to $238/month. The Chavez administration also implemented measures for elimination of discrimination between rural and urban workers, or with enterprises with fewer than 20 workers, and increasing maternity leave and vacation pay. Teachers will get a 30% raise starting May 1st and another 10% on October 1st. Among other things, the government approved a document demanding that employers respect the human, work and union rights of their workers.

Koo-Koo-Kachoo

 CLICK ON PICTURE

Rocío Dúrcal

Rocío Dúrcal
our beloved Ranchera singer, passed away yesterday from cancer. For those of you who didn't know her, she was a Spanish actress and singer who sang with a sweet but powering voice. She was adopted by the Mexican people as one of their own and dominated the female Ranchera genre. She teamed up with Mexican icon Juan Gabriel to produce some of the most exquisite and most engaging music. With a melodic voice, she sang every song with fierce passion. This a tragic day for Latin America. I urge you to play her music all day long, and if you don't own any, then go out and buy one of her CDs. My favorite is Peticion Del Publico: Sus 16 Grandes Exitos, although it most certainly is not her best…

Why Chavez is a Threat

Let’s take a look at what Hugo Chavez has been doing to piss off the Bush administration:

(1) Universal health care is the official Venezuelan state policy
(2) Elementary schools are providing three free meals a day to all students
(3) Government projects sponsor social services like literacy training, food subsidies, and rudimentary health care to the poor
(4) Indigenous Venezuelans, homosexuals and women are now protected in the constitution
(5) Land reform is redistributing idle land to landless peasants
(6) Operation Milagro, a joint venture with Cuban doctors, has restored eyesight to thousands of blind people in Venezuela
(7) Chavez has sold oil at far lower costs to fifteen poor nations in the Caribbean and Central America and to poor and Native Americans in the U.S.
(8) Chavez has provided “FREE” heating oil to dozens of homeless shelters from Maine to Delaware

The 10 U.S. oil companies, such as Exxon who made profits in the billions, did not respond to requests to help the poor
The entire world including the rest of Latin America has been watching the twice democratically elected Chavez use his country’s oil profits for social spending to benefit his people and those beyond their borders. The Venezuelan economy is also growing. His approval rating is at 77%, the highest in Latin America. So why is he such a threat? Wait a second…do you think it has something to do with the private U.S. investors no longer getting rich while the poor rot away? Might these same rich and powerful investors be pressuring Bush to overthrow Chavez? 80% of Venezuelans live in poverty. It’s going to take a long time to reverse that. The Venezuelan oil profits belong to the Venezuelan people and they should be allowed to use it. If Iraq, Iran and North Korea weren’t occuppying Bush’s resources, who knows what Bush would’ve forced on Chavez.
Citgo, is a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).

From now on, I’m filling my tank at Citgo stations.

You are what you eat

We are so terrified of being obese. Our fears are being manipulated by the same media outfits that feed us fear of terrorists in our backyards. Many of us feel that by being “fat”, we are supposed to feel or get sick. If we’re fat, we will have clogged arteries and get heart attacks. If we’re fat, we’re not supposed to be healthy.

The scare tactics are working. The so-called “obesity epidemic” is so compelling that even thin people feel fat. We look at fat people and think “wow, she’s so unhealthy”. People look at fatness as a sickness or a disease. Did you know that JAMA published a recent study on 49,000 women showing that being fat does not indicate unhealthiness? In fact, many thin people who don’t exercise or eat right are at greater risk for diseases than fat people. The study shows that low-fat diets do nothing to prevent heart disease & cancer. Weight loss does not improve survival.

So why do highly educated, media-savvy Americans continue to believe that thin people are healthier? The weight loss industry preys and gets rich on our fears. We go out everyday and spend a ton of money on diets, diet products, cosmetic surgery, and beauty & fashion products to combat our fatness. We spend $40 billion per year on diets that are known to be 95% ineffective. Just how stupid are we? All the sensational obesity-related news has fed us misconceptions about the link between being fat and being unhealthy.

I won’t even get into the eating disorders, the low self-esteem and the widespread depression surrounding fatness. A recent survey found that 1 in 10 parents would abort a child if they found out that he or she would be fat. We see ad after ad after ad of sensationalistic news that promote fear of fatness.

This is what I found on the internet: In a recent poll by Ellegirl magazine of 10,000 readers, 30 percent said they would rather be thin than healthy. Over half the young women between the ages of 18 and 25 would prefer to be run over by a truck than be fat, and two-thirds surveyed would rather be mean or stupid. The single group of teenagers most likely to consider or attempt suicide is girls who worry that they are overweight.

Gone is our self-worth…

Don’t spend your money on genetically engineerd foods, diet pills and fat camps.
Just buy organic products, stop eating processed foods, exercise regularly, and stop smoking. You’ll live a longer, healthier life by leading a healthier lifestyle. If you don’t believe me, just try it…

Bush was warned about Katrina but did nothing

click here to see video

Venezuela helps the poor in the U.S.

Bush hates Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Bush keeps telling the American people that Chavez is an evil dictator. Bush should be ashamed of himself. Chavez is the leader of a developing country yet is providing “humanitarian aid” to the U.S. He is giving Connecticut 4.8 million gallons of heating oil at a 40 % discount to households that qualify for state home heat assistance. Realize  that Venezuela is poor country with a per capita income about one tenth that of the US. Chavez takes better care of poor Americans than Bush does. Connecticut officials were very happy with the deal and praised Chavez in a statement released on one of the coldest days of the year in the Northeast.

Venezuela also sends cheap oil to the the poor and needy in six other US states: Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Vermont. The Bronx is next on the list. In addition, Venezuela is giving 258,000 gallons of oil free to homeless shelters in the US. Why Bush can’t subsidize oil to the poor is baffling.

Chavez gives cheap oil to other Latin American countries and is on the verge of building a pipeline to fuel poor countries in South America. Incredibly, republicans continue to criticize Chavez. Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky, said he wanted to find out if the Chavez program was “part of a larger political agenda.” …

Bushism – i like my buddies

“I like my buddies from west Texas. I liked them when I was young, I liked them then I was middle-age, I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after president.“

—George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2006

The Internet and China

So here’s the deal – American companies contribute to human rights abuses in China and here’s how they do it: If the Chinese government wants to censor your blog, Microsoft will take it down. If China wants certain websites blocked, you can count on Google to filter out these websites for them. And what about Yahoo? They give info to the Chinese government that has led to arrests and imprisonment of Chinese dissidents who thought they were using anonymous email accounts. These people are tortured. The whole thing is sickening and inhumane. But think about it: China is the 2nd largest internet market in the world with more than 100 millions users. At that rate, money talks and human rights don’t. Forget about it. The money is flowing faster than can be counted. Google, Yahoo, Cisco & others are loyal to the shareholders and are not obligated to be socially responsible.

insults

Moore/Bush Video

Watch it here

Cheney Was Drunk When He Shot Lawyer

“This was a South Texas hunt,” says one White House aide. “Of course there was drinking. There’s always drinking. Lots of it.”

Apple is now worth more than Dell

Dell makes a lot more computers. But they are worth a lot less.

Apple makes better computers. And that is worth much more. Even Wall Street figured that out.

Bushism – our enemies

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

–8/5/04

Programs Bush Wants to Cut or Kill

How will this affect you? Here are the 141 programs that President Bush proposed to eliminate or cut in his 2007 budget:

The Bush Global Gag Rule in Latin America

The Bush administration continues to work hard to restrict women’s rights all over Latin America. Abortions are still very much illegal in Latin American countries.

Taíno Word of the Week

Veycosi  : The Juice of the Yuca

Taíno Word of the Week

Warishe : Woman, in the Arawakan base language

Pinochet’s daughter detained

Pinochet’s 62 year old daughter, Lucia, was caught trying to enter the U.S. after an arrest warrant was issued in Chile for tax evasion. In fact, the whole family has evaded taxes and are facing jail time and fines.

Just like her dad, Lucia tried to flee prosecution. Augusto’s kids and wife behave like freaking criminals. Lucia owes $859,000 in taxes. Now where in the world do you think she made that kind of money? Hmmm… do you think her dad killing and torturing thousands of Chileans and stealing their money has anything to do with it? The fact is, Chile has been too chicken-shit to prosecute Augusto, probably because many Chileans like this fascist pig and support him, but also because people still fear for their lives.

Well I hope Chile is finally getting some backbone.

More Mining Woes

Two bodies were recovered at the Aracoma mine in West Virginia

Taíno Word of the Week

Hamaca : a hanging bed

for NK

A Poem

Carlos y Che

On 7 July 1953 Ernesto “Che” Guevara – the now legendary revolutionary – and his close childhood friend, Carlos Ferrer, left the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, on the beginning of a tour of Latin America

Presidente Bachelet

Bachelet becomes Chile’s first female president!

Aristide’s Coup

President Aristide never resigned. He was a victim of a coup masterminded by US intelligence.

Taíno Word of the Week

Macu’  =  Big Eyes, Ojos Grandes

Evo Tours the World

Evo Morales isn’t even President yet but already has secured political and economic support for Bolivia.

Retirees get screwed

Living in Bubble Land

You have to be pretty brave to buy at a time when many people feel there’s a bubble out there.

Female Mexican Zapatista Leader Dies

Ramona has died

Immigrants Run Scholarships for Mexicans

by Carrie Kahn and Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

The Farting Cat

Click on the picture

Social Anxiety Disorder

Why I wish I was on a deserted island.

The Tragedy of Coal Miners

This is all Bush’s fault!

Taíno word of the week

Piragua´= a warboat or long boat; un barco largo o lancha de guerra

Quinn

Christine C. Quinn will become the first woman and openly gay person to become speaker of the City Council. So why should we care about this?

New Year’s Resolution

Sleep more

Get shit together

Play canasta

Get a haircut

Eat more platanos

After Rainfall

After Rainfall

Bees serenade.
Lustrous warmth.
Imagine the roses
surrounded by light and
shadows

Zapatistas

Ahora ya hay esperanza y dignidad para seguir luchando con rebeldía de hombres, mujeres, indígeas y no indígenas.

Windows

Windows…
Cold and Silver
Painted by a dry fog
The ethereal smell of peace
Melts it

(written in 1980)

Christmas eve

snow falls.
icy crisp wind skips
and frolics.
we walk quickly

our home is just ahead
I can see everyone

it feels good to be home

google AOL deal

Well it looks like the rumors are true. Google has invested one billion in Time Warner’s AOL netting a 5% stake in the conglomerate.

nyc transit strike

The Long Wait

6th Grade

Walk in winter

Walk in winter

The street is dry and dark.
We walk and walk,
the air is still.
We walk some more.
Our faces painted by cold crisp air,
our ears red and painful.

Morning

Morning…
dark and cold.
a shy glimmer beyond a cloud
swells slowly,
orange and pink stains